The use of wireless technology has quickly become an accepted and popular method of enabling communication. Many enjoy mobile devices for the convenience of engaging in conversation from any location. Wireless carriers, in addition to offering voice communication, have begun to provide a variety of services. These services, in many cases, extend the capability of Internet applications to the wireless environment. For example, many people access the Internet through a cell phone to obtain stock quotes, make purchases, or receive driving directions.
A communications device that is exchanging voice information with another communications device does so over a voice session. In other words, the interaction that takes place during a voice session involves audible audio. In contrast, audible audio is not the mode of interaction in a non-voice session. Typically, the interaction in non-voice sessions involves visual interaction, such as displaying a menu on a browser.
For example, when accessing visual information on the Internet through a mobile phone, the communication takes place over a non-voice session. A session, as used herein, is a general term referring to a period during which a device is being used for a particular type of information exchange. For example, during a voice session on the mobile phone, the mode of communication involves audible audio. During a non-voice session on the mobile phone, the mode of communication involves something other than audible audio.
When communicating over one type of session, it is sometimes desirable to switch to another type of session to continue a related activity in another mode or channel. For example, the Internet includes several on-line music stores. In a single channel environment, the user can search, browse, select and listen music to from the single channel or mode. For example, all of these actions may be done over a voice channel by dialing a 1-800 number, or all may be done over a non-voice channel using a phone-based browser.
When a device supports both types of sessions, it would be convenient to allow the user to do some of these tasks in a specific mode and some others in another mode. For example, the user can start the service from visual mode for browsing and selecting, using his device keypad to select the appropriate song, then when the user clicks on the song, the device would shift to have voice mode to listen to the song.
Another example in which the ability to switch between session types would be helpful is an email application. A user should be able to browse his email list, and when clicking on a specific email, he can listen to the content of it. Note that here the content (Data) of the email is text, but because the user shifts to a voice mode, the interaction will be voice.
Unfortunately, with today's devices and networks, when a device shifts from one mode to another (e.g. from a non-voice to a voice session), the transaction is not kept. In other words, the user cannot save context data, or information that indicates the state of recent activity. Thus, as context data cannot be saved across sessions, it is necessary to reenter any information needed in the new session that was used or available in the old session. For example, in the online music store example, it is necessary to identify oneself and the music selection one would like to hear in the voice session, even though the user may have already entered that information in the non-voice session. The inconvenience of data re-entry is significant due to the relatively unsophisticated input mechanisms that most mobile device possess.
The problem of data reentry also occurs when switching from a voice session to a non-voice session. For example, when speaking on the phone with a salesperson, it would be desirable to switch to the salesperson's web site to immediately view product and sales information presented in a customized manner according to the conversation with the salesperson. Unfortunately, after a voice conversation with a salesperson, it is currently necessary to navigate through a corresponding web site manually without benefit of any prior conversation.
Reentering information can be a time consuming and repetitive act. It is desirable to eliminate the necessity to reenter information when switching from one type of session to another. Currently, however, there is no effective mechanism for doing so.